BSG is the major byproduct of the brewing and distilling industry. On average, one pound of BSG is created for every six-pack of beer brewed. This adds up to tens of billions of pounds per annum, in the United States alone. Traditionally, breweries sell or donate this grain to farmers for use as animal feed, because despite its impressive nutritional profile, it spoils quickly. Fresh BSG has high water content, and is thus unstable. To render BSG into an ingredient for human consumption, careful and precise processing is required to produce a dehydrated product that is attractive and safe.
Food manufacturers increasingly seek opportunities to utilize nutrient dense and sustainable ingredients for the products that their consumers demand. That focus creates a robust marketplace for specialty, functional, and other value-added ingredients. Once processed, BSG can deliver a versatile, economical, and nutrient-dense grain blend that capitalizes on the potential of an overlooked, undervalued, and readily available latent supply chain.
Traditional off-the-shelf dehydration methods are energy intensive and expensive. Ultimately, traditional processes produce relatively small quantities (5-10%) of usable BSG products that can be incorporated into conventional foods without adversely affecting the taste, appearance, and/or quality of the food. The need exists for a BSG-based flour that is safe for human consumption and has more universally-appealing characteristics as a value-added ingredient.
As described herein, the inventors discovered that drying the BSG with intermittent infrared (IR) heating and precise stirring creates a uniquely energy efficient way to dry BSG that gives the final product novel benefits including reduced microbial load, increased crispiness, and a more pleasant aroma. With these new qualities and BSG's excellent nutritional value, BSG can be readily introduced as a nutritious, versatile, and delicious ingredient for human consumption. This closed loop model of simultaneously feeding people and reducing waste is an economically viable and environmentally sound component of a more sustainable food future.